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From: mcgeer%ji@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU (Rick McGeer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: STS EXPLOSION TODAY
Message-ID: <8601311824.AA00454@ji.berkeley.edu>
Date: Fri, 31-Jan-86 13:24:55 EST
Article-I.D.: ji.8601311824.AA00454
Posted: Fri Jan 31 13:24:55 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 21:03:58 EST
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Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 36

>Date: 31 Jan 86 08:38:14 GMT
>From: vger!al@ucbvax.berkeley.edu  ( Informatix)
>Organization: UC Santa Cruz, CIS Dept.
>Subject: Re: STS EXPLOSION TODAY
>Message-Id: <321@vger.UUCP>
>References: <8601282025.AA07409@s1-b.arpa>
>Sender: usenet@ucbvax.berkeley.edu
>Errors-To: <space-incoming-request@s1-b.arpa>
>To: space-incoming@s1-b.arpa
>
>In article <8601282025.AA07409@s1-b.arpa>, Rem@IMSSS writes:
>> In addition to obvious badness:
>>  (1) TDRS lost, so we won't be having the around-the-clock tracking of
>>    space missions like we were hoping to have;
>>  (2) Our STS capacity is now down to 60%. Originally we needed 5 orbiters,
>>    However this may be moot if they spend two
>>    years analyzing everything before doing anything.
>This echos the sentiment frequently expressed on the net that NASA is too
>careful.  As the Challenger disaster shows, NASA is not quite careful
>enough.  If it takes two years to do the analysis, then they should take
>it.  Five if necessary.  I doubt that it will take more than a few months
>to determine the cause of the problem, fixing it may be another story.  In
>any case, I hope that those of you who think NASA should take chances are
>happy - they took enough chances to have a major accident and the space
>program has suffered a serious setback as a result.
>

If, in the history of technology, there has *ever* been a new vehicle launched
succesfully 24 times before its first fatal accident, I have been unable to
find it.  Compare The Shuttle's safety record to the X series rockets, the
first jets, the first airplanes, the first automobiles.  The fact that there
were 24 succesful missions before the Challenger disaster is a tribute to 
NASA's technical skill, quality control, and prudence; some would say timidity.
The only chance that NASA took was running the program at all.

							- Rick.